Diurnal and seasonal dynamics of soil respiration in desert shrubland of Artemisia Ordosica on Ordos Plateau of Inner Mongolia, China

Abstract

The diurnal and seasonal dynamics of soil respiration in the A. ordosica shrubland on Ordos Plateau were investigated in the growing season (May–October) of 2006 and their environmental driving factors were also analyzed. Results indicated that diurnal dynamics of soil respiration rate and its temperature dependence showed some discrepancy in two different growth stages (the vegetative growth stage and the reproductive growth stage). During the vegetative growth stage, the diurnal variation of soil respiration was slight and not correlated with the daily temperature change, but during the reproductive growth stage, the daily respiration variation was relatively large and significantly correlated with the diurnal variation of air and soil temperature. In the growing season, the peak value of soil respiration occurred at July and August because of the better soil water-heat conditions and their optimal deployment in this period. In the shrubland ecosystem, precipitation was the switch of soil respiration pulses and can greatly increase soil respiration rates after soil rewetting. Moreover, the soil respiration rates in the growing season and the air temperature and soil surface water content were closely correlated (p<0.05) each other. The stepwise regression model indicated that the variation of soil surface moisture accounted for 41.9% of the variation in soil respiration (p<0.05).